Locked away
by Nodus
Summary: Espers shouldn't mess with Death. Yakumo learns it the hard way, as she prevents the death of her sister, because after that things spiral out of control and the School Rumble gang now has to hide from the Grim Reaper's personal attention. no char. death


_ Annotations: My first fanfiction, and thought preread, it may show sighns of my incompetence in some places. Constructive critisism will be greatly appracticed._

_Disclaimer: I sadly don't posess any rights regarding the characters used in the story below.  
_

**Prologue.**

Tsukamoto Yakumo put her head in her hands tiredly and wished that she could sleep for a little while. Everything was rushing out of control with an incredible speed, and there was little she could do to change the situation. First, Nee-san, then Sawachka-sempai, then Mikoto and Harima and Hanai and Takano… There were too many people now, too many places she had to be at to prevent the grave outcome, too many details to be aware of, too many possibilities… And the feeling was getting stronger. Only today she had to drag Takano-sempai all over Shinjuku just to keep her away from her original goal, and before that, she had to sabotage Harima-san's bike, quite crudely, as she didn't know how to do it properly. At least, both punctured wheels should keep him away from the traffic.

"Imuto-chan, is everything alright?" her sister, Tenma inquired, forcing Yakumo to look up. The young esper gasped slightly. Her sister's aura was dark, almost completely black in colour, and the danger of death hung over her, now so strong one couldn't find the reason. It seemed almost constant now. And Yakumo suspected, that if Nee-san were to be saved from death again, the dark cloud won't dissapear as it did the last time. It would stay there, waiting hungrily for another chance to take Tenma to the Land of the Dead.

"Nee-san." Yakumo said, the decision finally forming in her mind, "there is something you should know."

**Chapter one: The Death Comes To Everyone.**

Sawachika Eri leaned back in her armchair and took in the scenary that opened itself for her from the balcony. It was the usual sky, full of stars and as usual, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Eri never tired from watching the japanese sky. In her birthland, Sweden, there were very few spots from where one could take in the glittering diamonds that were the stars. The climat wasn't right, was what her father told her once. Perhaps it was so, but still, Eri was certain that it was the japanese atmosphere that made the nightly sky look so stunning.

The people, the quite little streets in the rural districts, the small stores, the shopping centers…

Eri loved Japan.

The girl took her glass calmly and took a sip of wine, savoring the soft taste, and gazed again at the sky before her.

"Mistress Eri." Her buttler called, taking a step on the balcony and carrying a tray with her telephone on it: "A call for you."

Furowing her brow, Eri took the cell and flipped it open, wondering, who could call her at this late hour, but her frown dissipated instantly. It was Tenma.

"Eri-chan, I need to talk to you. Descreetly." Now this was as unlike Tenma as it went. And her voice sounded woried…

Eri made a movement with her head, banishig the buttler, and asked into the mobile:

"What is it, Tenma? It's late and we have school tomorrow…"

"Eri," the smaller girl interrupted, "you have to get to my home. Now, it's very urgent."

Could something have happened to Tenma's sister? Or to Tenma herself?

Figuring that it was useless to speculate, Eri asked again.

"Tenma-chan, what happened?"

And again, she only received a rather cryptic response.

"I'll tell you as soon as you get here. Please come, it's very urgent, really. And don't drive in a car, and avoid the dark streets, or the streets with a lot of traffic. Or any electricity lines. Or the canals. Oh, and the…"

"Tenma, what the heck…"

"Just come, ok!" Tenma cried, her fragile composture apparently breaking down, and then cut the connection, leaving a stupefied and worried Eri to stare at the beeping telephone.

As Eri walked up to the traditional Tsukamoto residence, she wasn't all that surprised to see Mikoto also strolling in the same direction.

"Got one too, huh?" the black-haired karateka inquired, waving her cell in the air. Her expression also looked worried, but she was hiding it rather well.

"Yeah. Strange, this isn't like Tenma-chan at all. I mean, she was really worried, even shouted at me, as I tried to ask questions. Blabbered a bunch of strange stuff about not using the car and all that."

Mikoto nodded.

"She told me the same. I mean, avoid ladders and traffic? It almost sounds as if there was a hitman after us. If this isn't serious, I'll kill the girl for worrying me like that."

Eri smiled in spite of herself. Mikoto never failed to find humor in a situation.

"Shall we, then?"

The two friends pushed down the feeling of foreboding and knocked at the Tsukamoto gates. And were really surprised, since Tenma, looking absolutely flustered, darted out of the door, pushed them inside and then locked the heavy wooden gates that always stayed open, as far as anyone could remember.

"Tenma, what…" Mikoto begun, only to be shushed and almost thrown inside the large house, followed by Eri. Tenma stepped in as well, threw the door closed and locked it on all the locks, going as far as pulling out a heavy hang-on lock and using it as well. It was beginning to look scary. Tenma wasn't supposed to act like that. Tsukamoto Tenma was the most carefree girl in the world, never staying depressed or sad for long, always cheerfull, energetic, smiling… Now she appeared to be afraid for her life, if the locks were of any indication.

Sharing another worried look, the girls finally focused their attention on Tenma, who managed to put the hang-on in place, and then turned to them.

"Girls, we have a problem." She stated, completely serious.

"We've gathered that much." Eri commented, studying Tenma's attire inquisitively. Her friend's clothes were in disarray, but that wasn't that unusual, since she was at her home. The unusual thing was the strange bulge under her belt, looking almost like a handgun. But that was impossible, right? The only time Tenma had her hands on a weapon it was paint-ball equipment for their little survival game. Mikoto also noticed.

"Tenma, is that a GUN?" she asked unbeliving. Tenma ignored the question, pushing her friends into the living room instead. There, another surprise waited for the already freaked out schoolgirls. There, in the middle of the room, a table stood, at which Yakumo was putting a large rifle together, helped by Takano of all people. And leaning on the nearest wall, sat Harima and Hanai, looking surprised and slightly sullen. Eri glared in Harima's direction, still not quite ready to forgive the arranged marriage incident. Mikoto, however, ignored the guys, she stared at Takano instead. Their friend was assembling her M16 quite skillfully.

"Ok, what the hell is going on here!" the karateka belowed, snapping under the pressure of the atmosphere.

"No idea." Hanai shrugged, pushing up his glasses. "We only got here."

"Sit down, both of you. There is something we need to explain." Tenma urged, then, after all were seated around the table, she threw a glance at her sister. The quite girl sighted and begun.

"I'm an esper." She informed the gathered people simply. "Harima-san and Nee-san can vouch for me. I can read the thoughts of people who feel some sort of emotion towards me, if I look at them. And in the past few years my ability was getting so strong that I could forsee peoples' future a little." Then Yakumo stopped, since Eri couldn't suppress her snicker completely. The younger girl stared at Eri intensely and then simply said:

"You think 'That's why I was dragged here for!" and "That kid will pay for that." In exactly these words." Everyone became completely silent. Eri, pale in the face, nodded dumbly, still not completely beliving what she heared and embarrassed read so easily. Yakumo just smiled slightly.

"Now you think that it's all a trick and accuse me of manipulation. Just take it as a fact, all of you, I'm an Esper and I can read some of your thoughts, since everyone of you is currently feeling something toward me. That's not the point, however. The point is that all of you should be dead."

Again, her bold statement was met with complete silence. Yakumo continued.

"I forsaw, that Nee-san would die by riding her bycicle to school and be hit by a car. I sabbotaged her bike and she had to walk to school by foot that day. I thought that that was it, and no-one would find out. But next I saw that Nee-san would have died, because she fell down from the roof in school. The problem was, that she would have clung to Sawachika-sempai and fall with her, and they both would have died in the process. I again hindered Nee-san from going to the roof that day, stopping both death. I thought it was only a coincedence at the time, and was just happy that I could save you both. That was not a coincedence. I saw that if you two would have died at the roof that day, Mikoto-sempai would have killed herself from grief. The next time I saw her, I saw that she would die at a practice incident. Again, I hindered that incedent, since I stole Mikoto-sempai's uniform and then I Saw that Hanai-sempai and Hairma-san would crash with Harima's motocycle, as Hanai-sempai would have followed Mikato-sempai if Sawachika-sempai and Nee-san would have died. Again, I hindered the crash by sabotaging the bike. But next it was Harima-san's death in a brawl gone wrong, and I hindered this as well, telling Haima-san to work on his manga with me at the time of the brawl. But Takano-sempai also had death hanging over her because she would have died as well if I didn't hinder the first two deaths, thought I do not know how. I prevented this as well, talking Takano-sempai into shopping with me at the time of her supposed death. The main problem, however, is that now you all were supposed to die and I stopped it from happening. And now all of you have death in your future, but I can't see the reason anymore, the feeling is too intense. It could be anything now, from a car incident to a clumsy fall onto a knife. And I can't see the time either. I think that Death was unsatisfied with my interferences and is now after you all. And it will stop on nothing until it claims you. I had to tell Nee-san, and she gathered you all here. Takano-sempai was informed immidiately after her arrival and brought us the firearms to defend us in case the house is attacked by muggers or any other people. And now we are in trouble."

The silence in the room deepened considerably after this story, the people around the tabel afraid to even breath. Tenma broke it quite bluntly.

"You draw manga, Harima-kun? That's so cool! Can you give me an autogaph? Then, when you get famous I could…" Takano put a potato chip into the smaller girl's mouth professionally, silencing her. The quite returned.

Eri finally found her voice.

"And you keep FIREARMS here? What if something explodes or shoots?" she asked shakily, staring at the rifle on the table as if it were a snake. Others too crawled a step away from it.

"They are loaded with gas bullets, nothing letal." Takano informed her calmly,

"The knives and kitchen utensiles were burried in the backyard, there is a gymnastic mat under every staircase in the house, gas was switched off, any flameable materials were also secured and burried. Only cold water is now accessible and every sharp edged furniture is wrapped in paralon. We have done everything we could to make the house secure enough to exist in as long as we try to figure out the way out of our predicement."

"Takano." Mikoto said in a dead voice, "why do you have firearms?"

"I work part time in government agencie for counterespionage." Takano didn't even blink at the question. "There, I have free access to any equipment nessecery."

Silence met this statement as well.

"I always knew something wasn't right with you." Hanai finally stated, pushing up his glasses and making everyone grin slightly. Harima kept silent, he just pulled out a cigarett and lighted it. This was a much lesser surprise, so it was taken in stride. Eri even found herself longing for a fag at the moment as well.

Tenma sighted heavily and voiced her concern.

"The only problem is, we don't know how to get out of this mess. I don't have that many occult volumes laying around, only a few family reliquies, and they aren't worth much, I'm afraid. We can't fight off Death with dried up geccon claws. Of course, there is Internet, we could find something there, but…" The sinister mood dropped even lower, as everyone took this in.

"So we just sit here and wait for something to happen? It's only a matter of time till we all die that way!" Mikoto cried, banging her fist on the table. Hanai nodded solemly.

"I know someone who might help us." Harima commented, shaking the ashes into his palm.

"He's a gaijin I met sometime ago, visiting Japan. He's a goth, very interested in spiritual stuff like this, got tons of literature about it all. I could try and give him a call, maybe he knows something."

Takano noded, but Eri couldn't resist the chance to get back at the diliquent.

"And how exactly did you become friends with a forein goth?" Harima only grinned ruefully.

"I was trying to buy some herbs I needed for… somehting and he happened to drop by the shop at the same time. Looked at me like I was crazy and told me that the stuff I was going to use was a joke. Gave me the proper reciep, we talked a bit, compared moustaches, I gave him a cig and showed him around Shinjuku, so he could buy all the stuff he needed. We had kept in touch ever since."

"And what did you need mystical herbs for?" Eri again needled. Harima blushed slightly.

"For a love potion." he murmured.

Mikoto snickered and Yakumo smiled slightly. Even Eri couldn't resist the irony the described situation and suppressed a smile. Hanai had no such reservaions and laughed outright, and Tenma smiled as well. The atmosphere lightened considerabely.

"Good. Harima, call this friend of yours, everyone else, follow me, I'll show you where you can get some sleep. The rules are following: no-one goes outside the gates, everyone carries his weapon on him, no cooking allowed without everyone present, the lightswitches and outlets are not to be touched without rubber glowes. You can pick them up along with the bulletproof wests from the carton over there. Wear them at all times. No running, no jumping, always keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Harima, your firelighter, please." The young man grumbled but gave in, passing the lighter to the girl, but fumbled suddenly and let it fall onto the table, on which it exploded on impact, setting the serviette on fire.

Some exitement ensued, but everything was put out successfully, carried out into the back yard and burried as well, to avoid spontan combustion.

"Harima, from now on you use the matches, put them out and burry them in the backyard. And no smoking in the house as well. Your sunglasses." Takano instructed.

"What have my sunglasses to do with anything?" Harima protested.

"They can break if you fall and the shards can pierce your eyes and damage your brain, thus killing you. Hanai, you'll have to give up your glasses as well." The girl said, taking the sunglasses out of Harima's hand and throwing them away over the wall.

"They are plastic. Not breakable. I've had enough problems with them at the dojo, so I had these custommade." The boy grinned, waving the offensive spectacles around. Akira looked unsatisfied but let it go.

After that, everyone went in, expect for Harima, who lighted another cigarette from the last one's stump, carefully pressed said stump out on the ground and pulled out his cellphone.

Some russian phrases followed from the other end and Harima quickly spoke:

"Sorry to disturb you, but can I speak with Pavlov Sergei-san?" the speaker quickly switched to heavily accented japanese.

"It's me you talking to. Who you are?"

"It's Harima from Japan. You still remember me, right?"

"Harima! Nice hearing you. How you are?" the cell inquired and Harima made a face. Sergei's japanese hadn't improved a bit.

"In deep shit." He stated, then continued.

"I need your help." There was a second of silence on the other end, and then a much more composed and serious voice inquired.

"What you need help in?" the diliquent crossed his fingers and asked.

"Do you know something to ward Death off?" again, Sergei paused.

"I no can heal any sickness. Try doctors."

"No-no, man, we have had our death prevented by an esper and now we can't even light a fire without the lighter exploding!" a third pause followed, and then a long string of what Harim thought were russian profanities was heared. After a minute Sergei finally stopped cursing the earth out of existance and switched back to japanese.

"You very lucky I not in Japan, or I would away run very quickly. It wery dangerous for people around."

Harima percked up a bit.

"So you know something about it, do you?"

"Yes-yes I know. I look up some books and call you again. No, better. You have internet? Give me adress, I send you all I find. Then we can do videofeed. Better that way. Wait for my call. Don't do anything dangerous. Don't go near cars…"

"Yes, yes, we figured that all out already. Made the whole house we stay in a small forteress. Even got firearms…"

"THROW AWAY!" the cell belowed.

"No-no, with gas bullets, only gas bullets!" Harima quickly assured. Another string of profanities followed and Harima was suddenly very happy he didn't understand russian.

"You no scare me like that, you hear! You nuts! Gas very dangerous too! Be VERY carefull. And don't tell anyone. People who know in danger too! Not let anyone near you. Is your seer still living?"

"Yes, she's the only one without death on her ass."

"Good. Keep her alive. She maybe can tell if danger very close. I call in two hours. Keep your computer on. And be careful with electricity."

Harima sighted.

"Yeah, we already have rubber gloves."

"Make rubber shoes as well. Earth can discharge into you. Wait for me call."

Harima thanked, gave Sergei the email and laid up. Well, that wasn't very reassuring. And he probably burned all his money on the cell for this one call. Damn. What a mess they were in… Well, he thought in a futile attempt on bravery, at least they had nothing to lose. They were supposed to be dead anyways, after all. This way, they at least had a chance.

"Got a cigarette for me?" A voice behind him inquired. Harima turned around and pulled his pistol in one movement, but then sighted in relief. It was only Sawachka.

"Damn, girl! Don't scare me like that!" he exlaimed, lowering the weapon. It suddenly fired, very quitely, and spit out a bullet that hit the ground since Harima was quick enough to direct it away from Eri. Both teens stared dumbly at the small cloud of gas. Then Harima silently unloaded the pistol and put the clip into his jacket pocket. Eri gave a sight and sat down on the ground, putting her head in her hands.

"It's too much for one day." She mumbled quitely. Harima dropped next to her.

"You said it. I was almost run over by cars three times as I drove here, and I stayed away from any large streets. Now my own bleeding firelighter tries to kill me and Sergei tells me to make rubber shoes so I don't get killed by freak electricity unload from the earth!" Again, a momnet of silence ensued, and then both of them scrambled quickly over the wooden terasse of the Tsukamoto residence.

"Damn." Eri muttered again. Harima silently pulled out two new cigaretts and lit them from one match, giving one to the girl beside him.

Eri took a long drag, then broke out in a cough, until it brought tears to her eyes, but still took another, this time without coughing. Harima smirked.

The two smoked in silence for a minute or so.

"The rest are inside, asleep. We're on watch, Takano said." Eri informed him finally.

The boy scowled.

"Always the diliquent for the dirty work. Oh well, I wouldn't be able to sleep anyways."

"Me neither." Eri admitted. "It's just too much to think about. I mean, one moment I sit on the balcony and the next I owe my life to Yakumo and am in danger of being killed by a falling UFO. Oh, and by the way, one of my best friends is some sort of a superagent. Isn't life great!" the last bit of sarasm was met by a snicker. Eri furrowed her brow, then smirked tiredly.

"So, you draw manga?" Harima froze, then turned to her with horror in the eyes.

"And I tried to figure out how my buttler managed to win the 'best rookie manga' award. Funny, ne?" Harima scowled.

"Yeah, funny. It was my award, you know. I worked really hard for it. And now the whole secret is out in the open and everyone will laugh at Harima the mangaka. Great. At least the whole ridikulous buisness with Yakumo being my girlfriend is proved wrong, she only helped me with drawing. I know the poor girl had it really difficult with everyone acusing her of being with me."

Eri gave a start and coughed again, forcing Harima to give her a few pats on the back.

"Well, that's news for me. She even made me jaluous before." She commented calmly.

Now it was Harima's turn to cough.

"WHAT?"

"Well," Eri elaborated tiredly, "I have had sort of a crush on you. And then, at the interwiev you went and told me that you liked girls with twin pigtails, who can't cook and so on. I thought you desribed me. Damn, was I nervous." She chuckled. Harrima was still horrorstricken.

"And then, with you being nice to me at the class competition and all." The girl continued, "Oh, and there was the whole 'Mikoto's worker' fiasco… I mean, after I found out it was you all along, I had this funny thought that you weren't so bad…" Harima's face now expressed all sorts of funny emotions like horror and such, but Eri didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, and there was this confession on the street, really gave me a shock, you know. No-one really confessed to me in love before. 'Eri, let's go on a date', yeah, lots. Love, nope. Another cig, please." Harima complied, still quite scared and surprised.

"Why… why are you tellig me this? Now, of all time?" he finally inquired.

"Well, it was sort of obvious. If we're gonna die at any given moment, there's not much sence to keeping it secret, huh?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose…"

"What, no confession in return? You were quite convincing in the last term." Eri chuckled. Harima thought a little, then laughed too.

"Well, I was chasing after Tenma the whole time. The whole pigtail thing was said because I saw a piece of her hair sticking out from behind the decoration and knew she was listening in. I even draw her as the heroine if love stories in my scetches. Not much use,thought, never had the guts to tell her, no matter how much I tried." He explained. Eri chuckled again.

"And you know, at the bravery test in the abandoned school, was going to confess there, but…"

"Yeah, I know that one. You looked quite scared when you pulled me into the room by my curtain, eh?"

Harima looked embarassed.

"Yeah, true. Really, you scared the shit out of me then. I mean, who the hell would have expected that it was your curtain?"

They laughed again, then settled into a comfortable silence. And when Eri asked Harima to hold her, he complied without hesitation. Then he was hit repeatedly. He shouldn't have put the rubber glowes on first, he reconed.

Not only Harima and Sawachka couldn't sleep that night. Mikoto finally gave up on trying to struggle with the uncomfortable bulletproof west and stood up quitely, creeping out of the room and down the corridor, into the kitchen. She really fancied something to drink at the moment.

The only problem was that as soon as she opened the door, she stared into the buisness end of Tenma's handgun. The smaller girl let out a sight of relief and put the weapon away, then threw her friend a dirty look.

"You scared me, you know." Mikoto chose not to comment on that, since she was too busy trying to calm her poor heart. Tenma could be quite scary, if she choose to. Said girl sat down onto the chair before the table (which was wrapped in paralon completely, as far as one could see) and put her head in her hands. Mikoto stood for a second in the doorway, unsure what ot do, then joined her friend, pulling a bag of milk out of the fridge in the process.

"What a day, huh?" she said, taking a drink from the bag and pushing it towards Tenma. Her friend ignored it and run her hands through her hair instead.

"Yeah, what a day…" she sighted, then stared Mikoto in the eyes.

"Do you blame Yakumo?" Mikoto started at the question, then thought about it.

"Well, no. I sort of owe her my life that way, you know. At least now we stand a chance at surviving, better then the alternative. I still can't belive that I was supposed to off myself, thought." The karateka grinned. Tenma didn't return the smile.

"And… And do you blame me?" she asked in a very small voice, now avoiding Mikoto's eyes. Which was good, since they were quite scary, as wide as they were.

"Wh…What? Why should I blame YOU, of all people! You were supposed to die too!"

"Don't you understand? If I had died as I was supposed to you wouldn't be in this all! None of you! And now even Harima-kun and Hanai-kun are dragged into this and we all will die and it's my fault!" the last words were cried out loud and Tenma stood up from her chair, glaring at Mikoto, as if daring her to disagree. The martial artist's eyes stayed wide for a moment, then narrowed suddenly.

Tenma never saw the punch.

It wasn't a punch per say, rather a slap, but the strengh with which it was delivered threw Tenma to the floor.

"YOUR fault? YOUR FAULT? Are you insane, Tenma? You think that your death would have made it all better? That we'd live on happily without you like nothing would have happened! How the hell are you supposed to know how it all would have turned out if you died? No-one knows that! So don't play a martyr here, because we're all still alive, thanks to Yakumo, and we are together here and we have a chanse to STAY alive! Do you understand? We. Are. Going. To . Stay. ALIVE! And don't give me the crap like that! I offed myself because you and Eri died! So how can you say that your death will make it all better!"

Tenma watched her ranting friend from the floor, clutching the stinging cheek with her palm.

And as Mikoto stopped, breathing hard from the effort, Tenma started to wail.

"Mikotooooo! You hit meeeee!…"

The karateka sweatdropped.

But they also were not the only ones spending the night without sleep. For as soon as Mikoto left, Yakumo also opened her eyes. She senced familiar thought pattern. From beyong the wall separating the girls' room from the corridor, a very strong thought of 'I love Yakumo' emanated. Hanai was creeping along the dark hall.

The young esper let out a tired sigh and stood up quitely, making her way towards the door. There was a misunderstanding to be cleared away.

"Hanai-san. Please stop." A soft voice made the stealthy boy pause in mid-step. He turned around slowly. There, just behind him, Yakumo-chan stood. In her nightee. Looking very lovely in the weak moonlight. Hanai had to stop there, since the amount of dirty thoughts was causing a disturbance to his normal thinking processes.

"Y-Yakumo-chan! What are you doing here ? It isn't safe…"

"Hanai-san," Yakumo sighted tiredly, "I had a very long and tireing day, so please bear with my directness. I know of your feelings for me."

There was a large bright banner that exploded in Hanai's head, with birdies and flowers on it, and the happy boy almost danced with exitement. Yakome-chan knew of his feelings! She returned them! She was going to confess to him and let him protect her at this time of danger!

"Yakumo-chan! But how…" The girl sighted again.

"I could read your thoughts, since your infatuation with me was quite strong. I must ask you to cease your wooing of me, at least for the time being. There is no time for romance."

And the bubble burst, leaving Hanai to drift in the dark pit of his dispair. Yakumo continued.

"You seem to misunderstand the graveness of the situation. You are in danger of dieing at any given moment, and all you can think of is how to sneak into my room, for whatever purpose." Hanai chose this moment to interrupt her.

"But Yakumo-chan, I was going to protect you! And my life is useless without you in it!"

The girl smiled slightly.

"These are only words, Hanai-san. We have much more pressing matters at hand, then your feelings towards me. I will tell you the truth, I am not currently interested in any romantic relationship. I am not together with Harima-san and I can't be your girlfriend anytime soon. Your feelings are not true love. It is just infatuation, a simple draw of hormones. You must not mistake this draw for true love, and as much as it pains me to dissapoint you, you must clear your head first before you confess to me about anything."

Hanai, who was looking more and more downcast and rejected with every word, finally gave a hearty sight that sounded almost like a sob. Yakumo lowered her head in embarassment and pity.

"But… But Yakumo! I truly love you! I would do anything for you! How can you say my love isn't real!"

"It isn't real, Hanai-sempai. I know. I can see it. I am sorry." Hanai stiffened at these words.

"I'm sorry if I caused you any troubles with my feelings, Yakumo-chan. But… Perhaps…"

Now Yakumo gave a tired smile.

"Yes, Hanai-sempai. If we manage to get out of this situation alive, we could try and get to know each other. As friends, at least at the first time."

The older boy forgot his dispair instantly, again ready to dance a jig, and Yakumo quenched the silly thought that perhaps she shouldn't have said the last bit.

"And I'm sorry I got us all into this, Hanai-sempai. Goodnight to you."

She turned around, but was stopped but Hanai's voice.

"Yakumo-chan, I thank you. I owe you my life." She smiled slightly, her worries easying off a little and continued on her way back into her room. She needed to get some sleep.

"Ok, Sergei, we see you." Harima tapped the cammer a few times, to make sure it was working.

"Me wish you not do that. Picture is shaking." The young pierced man on the screen commented, cringing, then sipped his coke. Or what looked like coke. Harima still remembered his friend's strange drink preferences. Sergei managed to mix everything with anything, and coke with coffee was not the end of the list. The russian boy shook his bleached hair out of his eyes, tugged at his beard and sighted.

"Not very good news, I afraid. I asked everyone, looked everywhere, but no found sure way out. The situation not unusual. Many people escape death the first time. All die the second. If seer around, second time almost always prevented. Third time it is not only one who dies. Seer often dies along the way. No one escape. Very sad, I say."

Harima scowled at the frowning boy on the screen.

"Great, very reassuring. How about some good news for a change?" Sergei shrugged.

"I find many ways to stop Death. You need magician close by thought. Or priest. You must do lots of exorcism and rituals. But that no good. If you lock yourself away, Death will come. Personally, I think. Then nothing helps. He just takes who he comes for, and that is all. I find some rites to stop Death from entering, but they must be done always, without stop. And Death don't give up, he has lots of time." Eri scowled as well and put her face into the camera.

"Good news, he said! Good! That's the opposite of BAD!" Sergei looked at her for a moment, then chuckled.

"Girlfriend, Kenji?" Eri had the decency to blush.

"Ok, good news. You can make deal with death. Only one dies, rest live. Is only suggestion!" he cried, as Eri and even Takano scowled into the camera quite nastily.

"You also can defeat Death. Is only theoretic, never done before. You issue challenge, then survive seven days, then defeat Death with weapons. Very bad idea, I say."

"Inacceptable." Takano frowned into the small objective. Sergei on the screen shrugged.

"You can ask Kami for help. Works for monks."

"Inacceptable."

"You can sacrafice lots of people. Then he leave you alone."

"Inacceptable."

"You can turn yourself in zombie. Then you dead and he no can take you. Works for twelwe hours, then you die for real, if not turn back."

"Inacceptable."

"You can…"

"That's it!" Eri exploded finally, breaking the dialoge between the two. Harima chose to step aside, so not to draw the blonde furie's attention to himself.

"You" Eri pointed her finger into the camera, "think of something more useful NOW! I had a very bad day and I am not going to waste my time listening to proposuals of zombification!"

Sergei sighted and pulled some large volume towards him, turning a few pages.

"Ok, here good idea. You do rites to stop Death from comeing in, then you run away through back door. But you have to run all life real quick so he not catch up."

It took all Harima's strengh to stop Eri from throwing the PC out of the window.

"Ok, ok, sheesh. Is not easy to trick Death, ok! I try!" Sergei tried to calm the enraged girl. It didn't work much, so he busied himself with his books instead.

"You can summon real big monster from shadow so it stop Death? The monster eat the city but you live."

Everyone stared at him, as if he was insane.

"Ok, no, me see. How this sound? You tell him was mistake? Um, no, not work. Maybe you… Um, no, not work either. Um. No, no, no way, no. Damn, me not know!"

"Well, then figure out something! We really don't have much time here!" Eri snapped again, jabbing the camera with her finger. Sergei cringed and took another volume. Takano spoke up, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Send us those rites to ward the enterence, we can win a little time that way. Then we can do as much research as we need to find a solution." Sergei nodded and klicked a few keys, still studiyng the book. A happy chirp of 'You have new mail" was heard and Takano printed the file out. The three teens stared at the diagrams, then read the annotations. Then they blinked and did so again.

"It looks challenging." Takano allowed finally, looking at the complex series of strange sharp-edged symbols.

"You not have much choice there." Sergei commented, then threw the book away and picked the third one.

"Aha. You can achieve Nirvana, then Death no can take you. Oh, right, you can't. Damn." The third book also went over the russian man's shoulder.

"Continue looking." Takano instructed, then turned towards Harima.

"You and Sawachka write out all that we'll need for the rite, then gather the ingridients. I'll stay here and work with Sergei. Leave the rest to sleep, they'll have to be coherent during the day." The two teens nodded and went out of the small bedroom. Takano smiled slightly to herself, watching them go, then turned towards the screen.

"You can freeze you in time. Then you can no die."

"Inacceptable."

"Ok, spider legs." Eri read out, scrolling down the list.

"Got it." Harima anounced moodily. He had to hunt for the spiders and then rip their legs out himself, since the blonde flat out refused to do it.

"Worm blood." The girl went on, ignoring Harima's plight.

"Here. Had to squash quite a few of them, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Bone of a bird."

"Present." Kenji waved what looked like a chicken leg stripped of meet around.

"The dude who thought this up was sure twisted. Ok. And the powdered plant?"

Harima shrugged.

"We'll just take flour, since it has to be any plant."

"True. Candles?"

"Here. As well as the fishbone pen."

"Where did you get a fishbone pen?" Eri put down the list and threw a curious look at her helper. Harima looked embarassed.

"It's a gift from my Master, he gave it to me to draw manga." He mumbled quitely. Sawachka chose not to comment.

"Then we have everything. We can get blood fo a virgin anytime we want. We'll just cut someone up a bit." Harima nodded with readiness. Hanai was going to get it. He never really liked the four-eyes.

"Ok. Then we're all set. The only problem is that someone has to draw all this funny symbols, but since you're a mangaka, you can draw quite good, I think…" The girl smirked at the enraged and embarassed expression on Harima's face.

"Woman! Are you going to bring it up on any occasion!" the boy bellowed, shaking his fist in fury. Eri ignored him. Payback for the rubber glowes was only starting.

"Ok, let's get this stuff back to Akira-chan, maybe she and this Sergei of yours managed to come up with something. Thought, I doubt it." The girl added as an afterthought. Harima scowled.

"Well, there isn't much of an alternative, you know. He has enough info about the mystical stuff to fill a library, so he's our only chance."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but come on, zombify ourelves? What does he smoke?"

"Marihuana, as far as I know." Harima shrugged, not getting it. Eri cringed a little.

"Oh, very reassuring. Our information source is high. Just great. We're gonna die." She commented, standing up from behind the table and taking the list in her hands.

"Oh, right. Ashes of a living man? Do you have them?" Harima shrugged.

"Where was I supposed to get something like that?" he asked rithorically, then took a step back from the blonde's glare.

"But I know how to get them!" he added hastily. Eri rose her eyebrow inquiringly.

"Watch!" And with that Harima stood up, took out a pocket knife and cut off one of the girl's ponytails.

…

Perhaps it was a wrong thing to do, the boy figured, since the glare intensified tenfold and the box with the ingridients flew into his face. Yes, perhaps he should have warned her beforehand, Harima analyticaly calculated, as his ribs were troden upon and a small foot met his nose, effectively bruising it, proving that Sawachka took her karate lessons quite seriously.

"What." The girl snapped, drawig out the words in anger, "did you do this for, you imbecile?" Harima rose from the floor slowly, still clutching the piece of hair to his chest.

"Well, we can burn them now! That way we get ashes of a living person! It's easyer then cutting someone's arm or foot off, you know!"

"At least you didn't go for that idea!" Eri huffed, a little pacified, then studied her ruined hair mournfully. Somehow, she just knew that this was the boy's revenge for the cut he received from her half a year earlier. Then she noticed that Harima was looking rather pale. And only then she noticed that the boy's pocket knife, which was still open when she assaulted him, demanding vengence, imberged itself into his left biceps. The wound was bleeding quite propously.

"Oh GOD!" she cried, rushing forwards, taking the injured appendage into her hands and quickly studying it.

"I'm so sorry!" Harima just grunted in silence, showing the common stupidity that boys mistook for toughtness.

Eri left him be for a second that took her to rush out into the kitchen and snatch the firs-aid kit. Mikoto and Tenma who were sitting at the table drinking milk and conversing in hushed tones about something and giggling, followed her with surprised stares.

"Nice haircut!" she heared from behind her as she rushed out and back into the siting room, but she let Mikoto's comment slide. For now.

"Ok, don't move, Hige, I'm going to bandage it." She informed the still standing boy, who was wrenching the pocketknife out of the wound. He gave her a dirty look.

"Do you even know how to bandage a wound?" he grumbled, sitting down and closing the bloodied knife carefully. Eri just smiled and then took his arm again, perhaps applying a little too much pressure on the wounded biceps. Harima wimpered quitely.

"Why the hell do you even have a bloody knife with you in a situation like that? Are you crazy? I thought you had at least a little brain in that head of yours." The girl ranted, cleaning the wound and applying the bandage, again making it a bit tighter then it was supposed to be.

"There. That should last for the night or so, then you'll have to change it. You're lucky you had the cevlar on you, or it would have been you friggen stomach." She commented, taking the dirty knife from the table and holding it as if it was something filthy and foul smelling.

"We've got to burry it. Come on." Harima rose from the table, studying the bandage, then waved his arm around a little.

"Good job, Sawachka, I almost don't feel anything. Where did you learn first aid? The courses at school don't show us anything like that." Indeed, the bandage was professionally applied and well-fitting.

"I worked as a nurse part-time the last summer. They taught us lots of neat things there, bandages are child's play." Eri smirked, tossing her hair over her shoulder. The head felt awfully light because of the sudden hair-reduction and the girl reminded herself to kill Hige later.

"Why did you of all people need a job? You swim in money!" Harima smirked, opening the door into the yard, and stepping aside to let her pass. The girl didn't pass up the chance to kick him in the shin along the way for the comment.

"Wanted to try it out, since everybody was doing it, you know." She said, digging a hole in the already eviscarated garden. Of course she had to do it with her hands, since Takano also already burried the showel. Harima shrugged.

"Crazy. Why work if you don't need the money? Done yet?"

"Yeah." Eri gave the small plump of earth an approving tap, then stood up, dusting off her hands.

"And I still hate you for cutting off my hair. Do you have any idea how long it took to grow it?"

"Some." Harima smirked, shaking his shoulder-long bangs a little.

"I had a ponytale once too, you know. Looked really cool with it and all."

"Oh yeah, I remember. That awful thing you had in our first year. I was really glad you got rid of it, I was sitting just behind you at the time. Couldn't see a thing in the front because of it."

"Woman! Don't insult my hair! It is always clean and beautiful to attract famale attention!"

"You just cut mine off and you have the guts to tell me not to insult yours! Are you nuts? And who told you your hair attracted womanly attention? The only thing it recieves is horrified glares!" Eri cried, firing up immideately. Harima put his hands forwards pacifyingly.

"Ok ok, no need to rant on every chance you get!"

"I'm not ranting!"

"Yes you are!"

"Am not!"

Ah, the strange and mysterious bounds of friendship….

"Ok, we got it all." Eri anounced, entering Tenma's bedroom and waving at the carton with the ingridients. The one carrying it scowled around the box at her but was ignored.

"Good." Takano commented, her eyes not leaving the monitor. There, Sergei was holding a book for her to read in before the camera.

"Found anything?" Harima inquired, setting the box down and settling behind the superspy onto the bed, accompamied by Eri.

"Quite a few possibilites present themselves as do-able, but we have to chose the perfect match to our situation." Takano replied, making a note in the block before her.

"Next page, Sergei-san." The goth turned the page obidiently, then stared at Eri.

"You do something with your hair?" he inquired finally, raising an eyebrow.

"It was cut off by Harima as a substitute, as they were unable to find one of the ingridients. He also received his flesh-wound in the conflict that ensued from his deed." Takano explained with disinterest, still staring into the screen. Sergei blinked, but let it go. Harima stared at her back, then turned to Eri for explanation. The girl just shrugged, already quite used to Takano's strange omnipotence.

"We have good plans." Sergei informed the newarrivels.

"First, you do ritual and go to land of dead, then back. You been there, Death is happy, leave you alone. Very difficult to leave Land of Death thought, is very wast. Second, run away to other world. Paralel world look just like yours, but we choose one where you dead, so no counterparts. Is very sad, thought, you have to pretend nothing happened and leave your real close people here. Not many manage, always come back after time."

"And die here…" Eri finished, looking dissapointed. Harima just grunted noncommunically. Sergei shrugged appogletically over his volume.

"We try to find better, but no luck. The rest is very dangerous or very…"

"Bloodthirsty." Takano helped, "every second possibility involves the sacrafice of at least one living person to grant us survival." Eri suppressed a shudder. She couldn't even imagine killing someone in cold blood, even if it was supposed to save her. She looked at Takano, thinking that perhaps one of them would be ready to do something like that. Did Takano already take someone else's life, she wondered. The question went unanswered, Eri just couldn't imagine the calm, tea-loving Takano, a girl with a costume-fetish, running around killing people, and yet it was so, from what she now knew. Strange, how life went. Still, her friend's refusual to go through with any of these plans was reassuring.

"Hey, what about this necromancy stuff you told me about once? Chumirien, or something?" Harima inquired, ripping Eri out of her mussings.

Sergei just shook his head.

"Sumerian, Kenji. If you Sumerian, Death ignore you. But there no sumerian blood people left. Would be perfect, thought, they very favored by Gods and by Death. If you Sumerian, you can ask Gods for anything you can think. They not care, humans can't ask for much, whatever they think. Gods always can do more."

Harima looked dissapointed, but didn't give up.

"Ok, no Shumeres around. But what about this necromancy? I mean, this dudes could control death and so on, yeah?"

"You need many years to learn necromancy and a good teacher too. You don't have time to learn Deathrising enough to be ignored by Death. Only real powerful necromancers could be immortal. Not possible for you all." Sergei answered ruefully.

"But you could ask Death to leave us alone, right? You can do this necromancy stuff, can't you?" Eri met the russian man's eyes.

"No, can't. No talent for magic, know only rituals and so." Pavlov grinned sadly.

"Death not listen to me. Very sorry."

"Damn." The blonde murmured. Takano put down her pad and motioned for Sergei to put the book away.

"I think, we should go though with the Land of the Dead plan. The others are ill-fitting for us and we could invoke the dimension travel as our last resort. There is also the possibility of loaning us some life energy from animals or other people, but I personally dispise the idea of such vampirism. We should vote in the morning and then work on a plan of action, but we probably could already start the warding ritual. From what Sergei and I could establish, we will have seven days before the Grim Reaper's personal involvement. The accidents wouldn't stop, but they will become at least not fatal and not occur so often." Eri and Harima nodded.

The spy continued.

"I think the perfect place would be the cellar, there nothing could disturb the rite. Harima, since you can draw, you will prepare the symbols and the star, Eri-chan will aid you at clearing up the place. Since Mikoto and Tenma are awake, they will be the first ones to recite the spell. Since it has to be done continiously, Hanai and Yakumo will take over in the morning. I shall prepare the timetable of rotations. I should also prepare the rite that stops Death from entering, we may not have enough time in the future. Sergei, don't disconnect, we should have continual contact with you. Is that possible?"

"Yes-yes, no problem. I invite some friends, they may have advice. I too call library and museum, maybe there is artifacts or more books. You not alone there." Sergei smiled, then yawned hugely.

"Need more coffee."

Takano nodded, followed by Eri and Harima.

"Let's do it then." She commented, exiting the room.

Harima puased on his way, however.

"How did she know Tenma-chan and Mikoto aren't asleep?" Eri and Sergei could only shrug.

"It is done." Harima stood up from his kneeling position, streching his arms. Before him, his magnus opus lay, craved out into the stone of the basement. The huge, twelwe-ended star, every inch of which was adored with runes and holy symbols, placed in perfect geometrical order prescribed by the ancient text, was inclosed into a circle of flour and it was only a question of placing the ingridients correctly and filling the cravework with blood. His job was complete.

"Impressive, Hige." Eri commented, also jumping down from her sitting place on an old table.

"Didn't know you had it in you." The girl threw an approving glance at the figure.

"Isn't it a bit big, thought? We'll bleed everyone here dry to fill it." She inquired, gazing at the half-a-centimeter-deep craving.

"It doesn't have to be full and we're going to do it only once, so we're in the clear." Harima smirked, studying the already memorised script for the umpteenth time. Eri took a look over his shoulder.

"The blood must touch. What the heck does this mean?"

"I think, there mustn't be any uncovered places in the star, that's all. Ok, now the question is, do we bleed Hanai, when he's still asleep or do we wake him up first?"

"Why does it have to be Hanai, anyways? I mean, he isn't the only virgin around. We don't even know whether HE is one. And anyways, I think the script means girl, not boy virgin." Eri disagreed, taking the printed sheet and waving it around.

Harima shrugged.

"Well, if you want to be on the safe side, we can ask Yakumo or Tenma-chan. Or even Mikoto." Eri glared at him. "What?"

"Oh, and I don't count? Or you thik I'm not a virgin?"

"Well, ok, you're a virgin, I can believe that. Not whether you're a girl…"

"Oh ha-ha. Very funny, Hige. Just for that, I'll vote for you being bled."

"You wouldn't! I drew the friggen thing! It took me hours and made me all stiff! Let someone else be bled!" Harima argued, then threw a suggestive look at the girl. Eri edged away.

"I provided my hair! You can't demand my blood as well!" Now, all of sudden, Harima seemed a lot more scary and foreboding, in the shadows of the basement and with his carving tool in hand.

"Oh and why not, princess?" he asked slowly, smirking. Eri scowled and threw the nearest empty can she drunk tea from half an hour earlier at him.

"Doesn't work on me, Hige. Look for someone else to scare."

"Am I interrupting something?" Takano entered the basement, a cooking pot in hands.

"It's done." Harima anounced to her, waving his hand over the star proudly, chosing not to answer Eri's remark.

"Good job." She approved, putting the pot down. "Now let's place the ingridients."

"We still need the blood." Eri riminded. "We were just diskussing how Hige 'volontured' to give us some, since he already has an open wound and all..." Harima made a rude hand gesture in her direction. Takano, however, looked contemplative.

"I already got the blood, but if Harima volontures, we could always use more…" The boy shook his head desparately.

"Who provided?" Eir looked into the cooking pot, studiyng the red liquid.

"Hanai, of course." Takano said, as if it was clear from the start. Eri smirked at her friend.

"You didn't even wake him up, huh?" Takano's lips curled just a little.

"No, he shouldn't be interrupted in his sleep. It's bad for his health." She answered, taking the pot again and putting it onto the table in the corner of the basement, then pulling out a spoon from her pocket.

"Let's start, the blood is cooling off quite quickly." The two teens nodded and after a short raid of the ingridient box, started placing the strange objects into the different ends of the star.

"Spider's legs for the Queen of Spiders: check. Wormblood for the Master of Decay, check…" Eri murmured, spooning the dirty-yellow substance onto it's place.

"Bone of Bird, for the Wingless Ones, ashes of living for the Hungry Abyss…" Harima almost sang, getting into the moment. Takano almost scowled at their childiness.

"Oh come on, have some fun as well, Akira-chan." Eri laughed, placing the dried-up gekkon into the circle of runes, to honour of the Great Lizard, whoever he was, then whipping her hand off on a handchief quickly.

"Ok, I'm done." Harima anounced after a few minutes, standing up.

"Me too. Now for the blood." Takano nodded to Eri and began spooning the liquid into the cravanses carefully, so not to spill anything. The blood filled the niches quickly, flowing innuaturally around the edges and glowing weakly in the light of the single lamp of the basement. The trio blinked.

"Ok. Now we know it works." Eri voiced everyone's thoughts, taking a step away from the figure. Harima followed suit.

Takano pulled a rag out and cleared a little bit of the flour circle, leaving only a decimeter of space uncovered.

"This is the enterence. Everyone who enters the star will have to close it behind him, and to leave, one has to bow and to clear the same amount of space." The spy read out from the printout, then made two marks with ink on the floor, outside of the sircle, to mark the space.

"Now, let's get out of here. Mikoto and Tenma are spposed to be done with reading, they can begin with the rite. We three, however, should get some sleep now. I'll wake Hanai and Yakumo, they also should read through the rite details." Takano nodded to herself, then motioned for her friends to follow her.

Stepping over the mat, they made their way up the stairs and towards the guestrooms.

"Sleep sounds nice." Harima yawned, scratching his chest. Eri silently agreed and even Takano nodded. The night they had was too active.

"You get to Tenma's bedroom, that's where you sleep, we can't have the PC left alone, Sergei may find something useful. I'll wake the rest." She said, then left quickly, before the sleepy teens realized the problem. Which didn't take long at all.

"TAKANO! ME with HIM? In one room!"

But alas, it was too late.

"You-floor. Me-bed." Eri deadpanned, pointing Harima at the rolled up futon Takano already set out. The boy grumbled, but complied, rolling out his bed and exiting the room in search for a bathroom. Eri sighted and begun undressing, then snuggled under the covers of Tenma's bed.

"Nice." The dark monitor commented, with an unmistakeble smirk in his voice. Eri turned red. She completely forgot that she had to turn off the camera, not the monitor, and now Sergei got to observe her in her underware. Scowling to herself and feeling that there was nothing to lose, she stood up from the bed, frowned into the cam and put her discarded blouse over it.

"Hentai." She murmured, still embarassed over the accident and ignored the cheerfull 'thanks!' from the russian man. Then, to her horror, the door opened and Harima came in, his shirt in his hand and a towel over his shoulders.

The girl eeped and sprang under the covers, demonstrating amazing speed and dextirity. Harima shrugged, then laid down onto his futon, still in his trousers, and closed his eyes. Eri gave a sight of relief, cursed herself for not checking Tenma's wardrobe for a passing nightgown and also tried to get to sleep.

"Nice birthmark, princess." Came Hige's snide voice. The dark monitor snickered.

Oh, what a day…

"Ok, now it's official. The one who thought this up was completely nuts." Mikoto concluded, putting down the sheet of paper with the spell translation. Tenma nodded, still studying her own.

"Perhaps 'naked' meant that undies were allowed? I mean, they didn't have any at the time this was written." The smaller girl commented, meeting her friend's eyes. Mikoto shrugged.

"No idea, but with our luck we'll have to jump around this stupid star completely naked. I just hope the boys won't get any perverted thoughts. If Hanai tries to peek, he'll receive a trashing of his hife, on that I solemly swear."

"I have more concern about Harima-kun. He's a real monkey." Tenma took a sip of her milk and frowned into the printout.

"I'm not even sure we'll be able to pronounce this. 'E kanpa ni kanpa, Nargul a satrnsh iiitug'. Nuts. And this is one of the easier passages." The small girl scowled, then put the printout closer.

"No, 'Nargul a sotrnsh'. Aaah, I'm gona doom us all with my incorrect prononciation of a dead language! We're all gona die because of me!"

"We'll just read it out from the sheet." Mikoto calmed her distress. "After all, we can carry them with us as we move. And I still think the idea sucks. We won't even stop the accidents with this, just make them less bad. Why should we do this in the first place?"

"At least we won't be in danger of spontaniously combasting." Tenma disagreed and put her cup down calmly.

"Let's get the headbands ready and practice a little. It says we can do mistakes but only once in a while, or the wards won't work."

"Yeah," Mikoto agreed, standing up and pulling out a towel from under the kitchen sink.

"we'll need ink thought, mixed with blood. You think Takano has some left? I hate the idea of pumping Hanai for more." Tenma giggled slightly.

"He'll sure be surprised in the morning, with the bandage on his arm and all."

"I'm more concerned that he'll be tired as hell. Takano sapped him good, almost a litter or so. He's bound to be a little off in the morning that way." Mikoto admitted, cutting the towel into seven thin headbands with kindergarden scissors.

"You go find ink and Takano, we'll mix the ink then. I'll try to make these more presentable." The girl waved the uneven-cut headband in the air.

"Ok." Tanma agreed, standing up and opening the door. There, looking tired, Takano stood, the cooking pot with blood in hands.

"Our two artists are done. You should probably begin as soon as possible."

"We're just making the headbands. You got any blood left? We have to draw the sigils with it." Mikoto asked, peering into the almost empty pot.

"I'll get the ink." Tenma nodded, then made her way into Yakumo's unoccupied bedroom, where the inkstone and the drawbrush rested. As she walked past her own bedroom, she heard some sounds of violence and then Harima exited, with a bruised cheek and a stupid grin on his face.

"Oh, Ten… Tsukamoto! I was just getting some water for the princess." He smirked.

"Oh, ok. We're about to do the rite now. Ick. We're supposed to be nacked doing it." The girl shuddered slightly. Harima's stupid grin got wider and his eyes glazed over, as he imagined his Tenma-chan nacked, but he quickly came back to his sences.

"What? Hanai is paired up with your sister! Isn't it going to cause a few problems?" he inquired, pensive.

"WHAT?" Tenma exclaimed, shaking the house, then put her hand to her mouth in horror.

"That's not propper. Not propper at all." She finally admitted.

"Can't you pair up with Hanai then? Then Eri or Takano can do it with Yakumo-chan." Harima nodded with readiness, all his tired body forgotten in a blink of an eye.

"For you anything, Ten- Tsukamoto." He grinned, then made his way towards the bathroom, waving.

"Well, I'm off then. Can't have the princess wait and such." He commented, dissapearing behind the door. Tenma also made her way towards her destination.

"Takano, you hentai! You shouldn't have paired up Hanai-kun and Imuto-chan. The rite has to be done naked, you know. But I already asked Harima-kun to do it with Hanai, so problem solved." She anounced cheerfully, putting the ink and the brush on the table. The spy took the inkstone and begun rubbing it on the inkwell-edge.

"Sergei told me that it wasn't nessecary to be undressed for this rite, a bathrobe should suffice." She explained. Tenma and Mikoto looked very relieved.

"And Harima should get his sleep, we'll need him tomorrow to draw another star for the next rite. We'll let him and Sawachka sleep in in the morning." Enough ink accumulated in the bassin and Takano added the blood, mixing it with the brush carefully.

"Done." she finally said, pushing the inkwell towards Mikoto who started to draw the elaborated sigil onto the white fabric, frowning in consentration.

Takano stood up and busied herself with the whaterheater.

"Tea?" Tenma grinned knowingly, pulling out a cup for her friend. Takano smiled slightly.

"Can't sleep without it." She admitted, pulling out the leaves and preparing her drink.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I need a cup of milk before sleep as well." Tenma shrugged, then resumed her seat behind the table, watching Mikoto work.

"What does this sigil mean, anyways?" she inquired, studying the design curiously.

"A personal mark of someone called Azag-Tot." Takano answered.

"He was some sort of a demon-lord some millenia ago, and his mark is still respected, or feared, by the higher powers. Sergei told me this." She added, as to explain her well-informed attitude.

"Got all chummy with this Sergei, did you." Mikoto grinned, putting down the pen and pulling the third piece of fabric towards her. Takano shrugged.

"He is quite well-versed in the mystice and a pleasant conversationalist, despite his awful japanese. I learned more about different powersourses from him then I have had from our information bureau. Besides, he taught me a new tea-reciep I long to try out: russians also have quite a story with tea-dirnking customs. I need a 'samovar' to make this reciep work, thought, so it'll have to wait."

"Oh yeah, sure, he gives you a tea reciep and you're best friends already. When's the first date?" Suou snickered. Tenma shook her head, eyes glistering.

"Ne, I think it's very romatic! A grave danger, a mysterious mage from a far-away land, a superspy… And tea as a common interest! Oh, that's so cute!" she gushed exitedly. Mikoto sweatdropped.

"Er… Yeah, sure." She allowed, returning to her drawing. Takano poured herself a cup of tea and sat down near Tenma, sipping the drink calmly and studying the karateka's work.

"Well done." She concluded as the last mark was drawn.

"Now you should get to work. I'll send Hanai and Yakumo in four hours, to switch with you, but until then you're on your own. Wake me up if something happens, thought." The girls nodded and fastened the headbands.

"Can't we take the TV down with us?" Tenma complained, "It'll be boring to just walk around this star saying chants, you know." Akira scowled slightly.

"I am not going to carry a TV down into the basement. It is heavy, it can fall and crush me and it can load static electricity. No way." She deadpanned, taking another sip of her tea.

"And besides, you have to concentrate on the chant. You won't be able to do this while watching TV."

"Bummer." Tenma's shoulders slumped, but she perked up again immideately.

"But we can take a radio with us! I just love the 'good morning' program!" and with that, the smiling Tsukamoto exited the kitchen with a skip in her step, humming something under her nose. Mikoto just shrugged.

"Nothing can get her down for long." She commented, then followed her friend through the door, leaving Akira to her tea. The spy sighted slightly, straightened her shoulders to work the kinks out, then pulled out her cellphone.

"763441 on line. I'm on leave for the next forseeabe time. Personal circumstances."

"Aknowledged and approved, 763441. All mission proposuals have been distributed among other employes. Enjoy your vacation." A collected male voice informed her, then inquired.

"Does your access to the database remain uncompromised?"

"Yes, it does. I also would like to submit an inquiry about mystical information connected with paranormal death occurances." Takano stated, then waited for the opperator to submit the inquiry.

"Your inquiry will be processed in the next two hours. Anything else?"

"Yes. I need the file of Sergei Pavlov, current stay in Russia, St. Petersburg."

"Aknowledged. The information will be sent towards the standard access adress. Good day to you, 763441."

Takano closed the phone and sighted again. There was no need to leave any unknowns in their already complicated situation.

The girl sipped her tea again, thinking over their predicement. The agency employed quite a few psychics, but Akira never had any reason to contact this department, with her being in the force applience corps, so the young spy had only a very wague idea of the danger they were in. And she couldn't ask for more help from the agency, since her contract didn't aknowledge support in personal affairs. Ah, the downsides of a part-time job, Akira thought sardonically. She even didn't get a three digit number… The girl put her cup down carefully and studied the night outside through the window. Perhaps she indeed needed some sleep. It was a tiring evening. A sound attracted her attention, however.

Someone was trying to crawl over the outer wall. The spy stood up noiselessly, took out her handgun and exited the house through the terasse. Creeping through the bushes, Takano established eye-contact with her target and aimed.

An almost soundless shot was heard and the figure dropped from the wall, knocked out.

Akira aproached the visitor, undertaking all the prescribed precautions, then jumped onto the tree near the wall. Another two shots pierced the night and the first target's complices joined their friend on the ground. Only then did Takano allow herself to study her first pray. A young blond man, dressed in a black overall, without any weapons, as the search established. Probably a rapist or a panty-thief, Takano concluded. The first thought seemed more probable, since the man had friends with him. Akira scowled darkly. Soon the burglar's unconsiusious body was carried out of the gates and thrown down near the other two, with a card pinned to his overall.

"This was the wrong house." The card proclaimed. Of course, Takano also relieved all three of any money in their portmonais and the knife she found by her last victim. Now, completely sure that she did her duty, the young spy returned into the house and walked into Yakumo's empty room, cherishing the thought of sleep. It wasn't that she really needed it, her body was trained to work continuously for at least four days without fail, but this time the tiredness was more psychical then physical. The spys too needed rest sometimes.

_ Annotations: Yes, I am evil, since I desrtoyed the beautifull and kind atmosphere the original Anime gave to the watcher. I shall try to stay in character as much as possible. Please review, even anonumously, since I won't be able to better myself without some feedback. Thanks to all who bothered to read this.  
_


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